Canada could be about announce that recreational marijuana is legal across the country sometime this week and when it happens, it would make the country the every first G7 country to do it.
The Group of Seven or G7 is a group consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. These countries have the largest economies in the world.
It will be on Thursday that the country’s Senate votes on bill C-45, which would legalize the use and purchase of marijuana for adults over the age of 18.
Even if it passes, sales of the drug would not be allowed until two to three months after legislation passes according to the country’s health minister.
“It’s going to be a bit of a science fiction experience for a while,” remarked Benedikt Fischer, an expert on substance use at Toronto’s biggest psychiatric hospital.
He added, “It’s unique in the world, because it’s happening for the first time in a wealthy country. It’s not like in the US, where there are these state experiments. Most people kind of ignore Uruguay. And so the world is really looking at this.”
Dr Larry Wolk, the state’s top public health official asked, “What’s the impact of marijuana legalization on the opioid crisis? Does it actually act as a substitute so that people can get off opiates for chronic pain? Is there a positive impact? Or is it a negative impact, because as a result there’s more opiates in the black market? Is [pot] a gateway? We don’t really have an answer.”
